1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a melody sound generating apparatus that plays a recorded melody sound in portable telephones or the like. In particular, the present invention relates to a programmable melody sound generating apparatus that reproduces a recorded melody sound including a plurality of sets of musical notes based on different musical scales, as a call-reception sound or a call-hold sound in portable telephones or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
With recent rapid developments of portable telephones, personal handy phone systems (PHS) or the like, many portable telephones, currently on the market, are equipped with a melody sound generating device, which reproduces a recorded melody sound as a cell-reception sound or a call-hold sound. The call-reception sound is played by the melody sound generating device in order to alarm the user about a call-reception state of the portable telephone. The call-hold sound is reproduced to alarm the user about a call-hold state of the portable telephone.
Further, another type of portable telephone that is equipped with a programmable melody sound generating device is currently known. In this melody sound generating device, a control program enables the user to record a desired melody sample for the call-reception sound or the call-hold sound in the portable telephone.
However, what the above-described melody sound generating devices can reproduce are limited to a melody sound consisting of a set of musical notes based on a single musical scale. The melody sound reproduced has been poor or monotonous in the sense of hearing. It is desirable to provide a melody sound generating device that can reproduce any of a variety of melody sounds in a pleasant sounding way. However, there has been a problem in that such a melody sound generating device that meets this demand requires more complicated circuits with a larger size than the existing melody sound generating devices.